Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the Answer of the 30 June 2020 to Written Question 64962 on Terrorism: Northern Ireland, what estimate his Department made as part of legislative proposals for the Victims Payment Scheme of the (a) potential number of victims entitled to the payment from that scheme and (b) the total cost of that scheme.

The Government provided a legislative framework for this scheme in the absence of an Executive. A public consultation was carried out between October and November 2019, and the responses to the consultation contributed to the final shape of the scheme. Unlike fatalities, there is no comprehensive dataset about seriously injured victims of the Troubles. In this context, the ability to estimate with confidence both the number of applications to the scheme and the number of awards that will be issued is constrained.

The Executive committed to “find a way forward” on this issue in 2014. We have provided that way forward through the regulations. The Executive must now set aside its political differences and deliver for victims.